TJ Johal, the owner of Sports Unlimited in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, told public broadcaster CBC that he was shocked to hear the team did not have proper uniforms for the opening ceremonies.

"My first reaction was, you're kidding me. They're from India, the land of clothing, and they have no clothes to wear? But that's just how it is in Third World countries," he said.

Shushma Datt, the owner of radio station RJ1200 - which bills itself as Vancouver's Bollywood Station - told the BBC it had raised 8,000 Canadian dollars (£4,875) at an impromptu fundraising event on Wednesday night, and that donations were still coming into a bank account set up for the athletes.

Team captain Shiva Keshavan, 28, who is competing in his fourth Winter Olympics, said he was grateful for all the help.

"To feel this kind of support from our community on the other side of the world from India, it is such a great feeling," he told television network CTV.

Mr Keshavan said he received his first funding of $20,000 (£12,800) from the Indian government last year, after more than a decade of competing.

I haven't watched much. I don't watch because I cannot appreciate the difficulty of what the ppl on screen do. I know it is extremely tough.. but as I have never participated in winter sports much I cannot realize how difficult what they are doing really is.

I'm here for the ice dance! Starts tonight. Go Kerrs! They were 5th at the Europeans so they have a good shot at placing high up, if not necessarily in medal contention.

I've been trying to watch quite a bit though...

I like the sliding events. They're insane and I'd never do them but it just looks -fun- even if I wince when they start rocking around. <<

Surprise liking was the snowboard cross... that was fun!

I'm not liking mongols skiing (it kept making me wince too much), I couldn't care less about hockey, alpine skiing seems rather dull and I've never been into marathons or cross country stuff. Somebody got knocked unconscious in it earlier though. I just don't find this stuff entertaining.

I like the speedskating, that's quite interesting.

Curling makes zero sense but is surprisingly watchable... well, the women are, as they're semi decent at it (by which I mean Great Britain). The men aren't doing so well.

I figure the reason we have more medals is because we seem to have more people participating. You know, better odds.

May be it's got to do with the amount of money spent on sporting infrastructure and the sporting culture that's imbibed on the minds of young American kids and the sheer bloody-mindedness and pride of the Americans to excel in tough conditions?

PS: Did I blabber the truth, by any chance? Go Soviet Union, er, Russia!

VijayArumugam wrote:May be it's got to do with the amount of money spent on sporting infrastructure and the sporting culture that's imbibed on the minds of young American kids and the sheer bloody-mindedness and pride of the Americans to excel in tough conditions?

This too! I was going to put how I thought another reason is the ability for people to make money (and perhaps a living) from these types of things in America, whereas I don't imagine the same can be said of all other countries.

The Olympics (both) are full of too many games pretending to be sports which are 'judged' by 'experts'.

Even something like ski jumping where there is a way of saying who is the best is ruined by people judging 'style'. Its jumping as far as you can.....the winner should be the person who jumps the furthest!

Curling rules are easy to understand. The person closest to the center wins. The object is to get your stone closer than the opponents by blasting away their stones from the center or squeezing yours in closer to the center. The game's a lot tougher than it seems btw. A good sport to play for those who are not very athletically inclined.

After both teams have delivered eight stones, the team with the stone closest to the button is awarded one point for each of its own stones that is closer than the opponent's closest stone. Stones that are not in the house (further from the centre than the outer edge of the 12-foot (3.7 m) ring) do not score even if no opponent's stone is closer

Eight points (all the rocks thrown by one team counting) is the highest score possible in an end, and is known as an "eight-ender" or "snowman".

First bad game for our skip though, and she's only my age when the other team have way more experience, so can't complain too much... 3 wins, 3 losses for Britain in the round robin with 3 games left to play.

Kerrs finished 8th in the ice dance, I still like their free dance best They should get extra marks for coming up with different music choices (along with one or two other teams last night...) and mixing things up a bit.

It's always frustrating to watch them however. EVERY time I see them one of them makes an error on the twizzles. Happened in the original dance, in the free dance... very frustrating!

Ice dance it makes some sort of sense in that they're all judged on required elements, but they have different sets of difficulty etc. Someone can be flawless and do a less difficult programme and so it wouldn't be as good as somebody making one error with much higher difficulty.

I think they changed the scoring system as the older one was -too- subjective, so now it's got a lot of technicalities

On the other hand, it's subjective when it comes down to it when factoring in performance scores etc.

Eh... difficulty is a judgement in some respects, but it's a set thing I think. The difficulty scoring is understood by the skaters when they sort out the programme... the bit that is unpredictable and thus the problematic subjectivity is the rest of it, imo.

Turin in 2006 saw the Olympic debut of a new system designed to eliminate the risk of biased judging.

THE SALT LAKE SCANDALA row blew up when Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were awarded silver behind Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton SikharulidzeThe Canadians had skated a seemingly flawless programme, while their rivals had appeared to make some technical errorsA French judge claimed she had been pressured into favouring the RussiansIt was eventually decided that the two pairs should share the gold medal

This was prompted by events in the pairs competition at the last Winter Games in Salt Lake City, when the gold medals had to be shared after a judging scandal marred the event.

In the past, judges gave one mark for technical merit and one for artistic impression, with 6.0 the maximum that could be awarded in each case.

Under the new, more complicated system, each programme is now given a technical score and a score for 'programme components'.

Technical score

Each jump, spin, lift or step sequence is given a 'base value' before the competition begins. A triple axel, for example, is worth 7.5.

It is the job of a 'technical specialist' to decide during a skater's routine which move has been executed - whether it is a double or a triple axel, for example. Two assistants are on hand to correct any errors.

DID YOU KNOW?The first ice skating blades were made from wood, bone or antlers

As that happens, the nine judges - drawn randomly from a panel of 12 - each decide how well the element has been executed.

They use a scale ranging from -3 to +3. The highest and lowest of these nine marks are taken away, and the average of the remaining marks taken.

This average is then added to the 'base value' to obtain a mark for each element which goes towards the final score.

Programme components

The old artistic impression mark has been replaced by a set of five judging criteria, each with a scoring scale ranging from 0.25 to a maximum of 10.

Skating skills - reflects the general quality of the skating.

Transitions - covers how well the skater has executed the steps which link each element.

Performance/execution - assesses style, posture and changes in speed.

Choreography - how well the movements, steps and music work together as a whole.

Interpretation/timing - how well the skater works in time with the music.

Skating guide

Apart from the skates, all that is required in figure skating is a costume - but choosing the right outfit is a tricky business.

Costumes must complement the music and moves for maximum dramatic effect, and they are custom-made at great expense.

The more eye-catching, the better.

Men must wear full-length trousers, and the skaters' clothing "must not give the effect of excessive nudity for athletic sport".